Sonic BOOM! Help Bring Super Street Fire to Burning Man

The inner playa at night is a circus. There are lines at all the rides. The MCs all vie for your attention, boasting into their microphones and shining their spotlights on you as you meander through, your headlamp bouncing around looking for the next distraction. The music bombards you from all directions.

But every year, there’s that one thing, that one Esplanade structure that demands all attention. You can hear it for a mile in every direction. When the flames go off, it lights up the whole scene, showing you the faces of all the darkwads creeping around you for just a second or two. At Metropolis in 2010, it was Ein Hammer. Their German accents were questionable, but their dominance of the Burning Man night carnival was not.

This year, with your help, the center of attention will be a game. A game of live-action, flame-spouting, hadouken-slinging, mind-reading hand-to-hand combat. It’s called Super Street Fire, and you are player one.

Simply put, it’s Street Fighter 2 only with the fire of a thousand suns (aka 32 flame effects). Set on a real-life version of Ryu’s classic stage, Super Street Fire sees two brave fighters duke it out for up to three rounds of ridiculously intense gameplay. The two players stare each other down while poised ten metres apart on their own elevated platforms. In front of them lie two rails of fire just waiting to be provoked. A Master of Games officiates each bout with play-by-play commentary, heartfelt cheering and the odd disparaging remark. As if this wasn’t epic enough, we then surrounded it all with a glorious ring of fire.

Before battle, both fighters are outfitted with motion-sensing gloves. The gloves are designed to capture every throw from perfectly timed blocks, to fierce right hooks, to deadly hadoukens. With each attack, a coloured line of fire hurtles towards the opponent as they scramble to retaliate or succumb to fiery damage. Still remember combos? Good. The stronger the attack, the greater the spectacle. As the countdown clock winds down, punches are thrown, life is lost and a victor is named.

Super Street Fire is built by Toronto’s Site 3. They’ve received an honorarium grant from Burning Man this year, but they need our help to get over the top.

If this project blows your mind, please consider contributing to their Kickstarter. It closes on July 14, and they’re almost there. If you contribute to the project, I will let you personally hadouken me to death when we’re out there.

Many thanks for your kind words and support. We’re thrilled to have a place on the Burn Blog and to be bringing Super Street Fire to the playa this year. We hope you’ll consider backing us on Kickstarter so we can spend more time building and adding in more awesome moves (you didn’t hear it from me) and less time worrying about fundraising. See you in the dust!